Context Decreased well-being of health care workers expressed as stress and decreased job satisfaction influences patient safety and satisfaction and cost containment. Self-compassion has garnered recent attention due to its positive association with wellbeing and happiness. Discovering novel pathways to increase the well-being of health care workers is essential. Objective This study sought to explore the influence of self-compassion on employee happiness in health care professionals. Design, Setting & Participants 400 participants (mean age 45 ± 14, 65% female) health care workers at a large teaching hospital were randomly asked to complete questionnaires assessing their levels of happiness and self-compassion, life conditions and habits. Measures Participants completed the Happiness Scale and Self-Compassion Scales, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire as well as variables associated with wellbeing: relationship status, the number of hours spent exercising a week, attendance at a wellness facility and engagement in a regular spiritual practice. Results Self-compassion was significantly and independently associated with perceived happiness explaining 39% of its variance after adjusting for age, marital status, gender, time spent exercising and attendance to an exercise facility. Two specific subdomains of self-compassion from the instrument used, coping with isolation and mindfulness, accounted for 95% of the self-compassion effect on happiness. Conclusion Self-compassion is meaningfully and independently associated with happiness and well-being in health care professionals. Our results may have practical implications by providing specific self-compassion components to be targeted in future programs aimed at enhancing wellbeing in health care professionals.

Rationale: Individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often struggle with diminished autonomy and quality of life. Emotional factors play a crucial role in the well-being of patients with COPD; they are independently associated with critical outcomes such as dyspnea, quality of life, and health care use. Emotional intelligence is the capacity to understand and manage personal thoughts and feelings, as well as to positively influence interpersonal communication and social well-being. Emotional intelligence is a trainable skill that is extensively used in corporate business to improve well-being and performance, and it may also be significant in the self-management of emotions in patients with chronic disease. Importantly, research supports the proposition that emotional intelligence may be developed and learned at any time or any age, and training programs have been associated with increased well-being and better emotional regulation in patients with chronic disease. However, to date, no research has been done to investigate its value in patients with COPD.Objectives: We aimed to investigate the association between emotional intelligence and two meaningful outcomes in COPD: quality of life and self-management abilities.Methods: Participants with moderate to severe COPD completed a disease-specific quality of life tool (Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire), the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, the Self-Management Abilities Scale, the modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale, and pulmonary function tests, and also provided information about living conditions and self-reported health care use. Measurements and Main Results:A total of 310 patients with COPD (mean age, 69 6 9 yr; 40% female; mean FEV 1 %, 42.4 6 15.8) participated in the study. Emotional intelligence was significantly and independently associated with self-management abilities (P , 0.0001) and all domains of quality of life assessed (dyspnea, fatigue, emotions, and mastery; P , 0.0001) after adjusting for age, degree of bronchial obstruction, breathlessness, and other significant confounders.Conclusions: Emotional intelligence may represent an important attribute in COPD, as it is associated with self-management abilities and all domains of quality of life, regardless of age or disease severity. Emotional intelligence can be learned and may complement existing rehabilitation efforts. Attention to it may address the current gap that exists in the treatment of emotional components of COPD responsible for decreased quality of life and increased health care use.Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; emotional intelligence; emotions; quality of life; self-management Author Contributions: R.P.B.: contributed to the conception and design of the work as well as the analysis and interpretation of data; J.L.K.: contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the data; and M.M.D. and B.A.-B.: contributed to the design of the study. All authors contributed to the drafting and revising of the manuscript and ga...

This study provided themes to further inform the delivery and implementation of health-coaching interventions in patients with COPD after hospital discharge. Health coaching forged partnerships and created a platform for patient engagement, which was confirmed by both participants and health coaches.

Objective Pain is common among women with gynecologic cancer and contributes to depressed mood, sleep disturbances, and likelihood of future chronic pain. Little is known about how psychosocial factors are associated with central sensitization of pain in gynecologic cancer. This study examined relations among depressive symptoms, sleep, subjective pain, and aftersensation pain (a proxy for central sensitization of pain) in gynecologic cancer. Methods Participants were 42 women (mean age [SD] = 59.60 [10.11] years) enrolled in a randomized clinical trial examining psychological intervention effects on sleep, pain, mood, and stress hormones/cytokines in gynecologic cancer. Six to eight weeks after surgery, participants completed an assessment of depressive symptoms, sleep, and subjective pain and a temporal summation of pain protocol via quantitative sensory testing (QST). Results Controlling for recent chemotherapy, history of chronic pain, and analgesic medication use, regression analyses revealed that longer sleep onset latency (SOL; B = 3.112, P = 0.039, bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa) 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.371 to 6.014) and greater sensory pain (B = 0.695, P = 0.023, BCa 95% CI = 0.085 to 1.210) were associated with greater aftersensation pain at 15 seconds. Greater sensory pain scores were associated with greater aftersensation pain at 30 seconds (B = 0.286, P = 0.045, BCa 95% CI = 0.008 to 0.513). Depression was not associated with aftersensation pain. The overall models accounted for 44.5% and 40.4% of the variance in aftersensation pain at 15 and 30 seconds, respectively. Conclusions. Longer SOL and higher subjective sensory pain were related to greater aftersensation of experimentally induced pain in women postsurgery for gynecologic cancers. Interventions that improve sleep and subjective sensory pain during the perisurgical period may reduce risk for central sensitization of pain.

Objective: Elevated body mass index (BMI), tobacco use, and sleep disturbance are common health concerns among women with gynecologic cancers. The extent to which these factors are associated with systemic inflammation in gynecologic cancers is unknown. This is a significant literature gap given that (a) chronic, systemic inflammation may mediate relationships between behavioral health factors and cancer outcomes; and (b) elevated BMI, tobacco use, and sleep disturbances can be modified via behavioral interventions. This study examined Interleukin-6 (IL-6) relations with BMI, tobacco use history, and sleep disturbances in patients undergoing surgery for suspected gynecologic cancer. Method: Participants were 100 women (M age = 58.42 years, SD = 10.62 years) undergoing surgery for suspected gynecologic cancer. Smoking history was determined by participant self-report. Sleep quality/disturbance was assessed via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. BMI was abstracted from electronic health records. Presurgical serum IL-6 concentrations were determined using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Results: Controlling for the cancer type and stage, regression analyses revealed higher BMI, β = 0.258, p = .007, and former/current smoking status, β = 0.181, p = .046, were associated with higher IL-6. IL-6 did not differ between former and current smokers, β = 0.008, p = .927. Global sleep quality, sleep latency, and sleep efficiency were not associated with IL-6. Conclusions: Higher BMI and any history of tobacco use predicted higher IL-6 among women undergoing surgery for suspected gynecologic cancers. Cognitive–behavioral interventions targeting primary and secondary obesity and tobacco use prevention may reduce systemic inflammation and optimize cancer outcomes in this population.